1. Set the Foundation 

In this section we will establish information about your go-to-market (GTM) strategy and resources that will help you execute this playbook.

Intent data is not a silver bullet for your marketing efforts; it provides insights and a data input to help you prioritize your focus and effort. There still needs to be the basics of solid messaging and positioning, strategy, process, & other data inputs to make your account-based marketing successful.

Additionally, you will want to have measurement benchmarks across sales and marketing to ensure you can show the impact of your intent data and account-based marketing strategy.  

These campaigns should then be optimized over time and built with content that is durable, and by that we mean will be relevant for 12-18 months (eg: trends reports, custom research, subject matter interviews). For some, you already have great campaigns that can be easily tailored to meet this need, for others, you will be starting from scratch. If you’re starting from scratch, we recommend tackling one campaign at a time, starting with your most important product or solution.

Resources:  Foundational GTM checklist

2. Build your Signal(s) 

Create Signals for pipeline prediction that generally delivers businesses doing research throughout the buyer's journey or marketing funnel. 

You should aim to create a small number of core Signals that can be acted on with unique messaging, and/or within unique ABM plays. For the purpose of pipeline prediction, you should not create multiple signals for the sake of having multiple signals.  

Start here: Steps and Worksheets for Building a Signal 

3.  Technical Implementation of the Data in your CRM, MAP or other sales tools.

This step is specifically for customers who:

1. Haven't already set up your initial direct integration (new customers to Bombora going through onboarding). 
2. Need to integrate NEW topics that were surfaced in step #2, "Build the Signal." 

Resources:

•  Technical Implementation of SFDC
•  Technical Implementation of HubSpot
•  Technical Implementation of Outreach

4.  Activating the Data within your ABM tools and strategy

Now that the data is flowing in your CRM or MAP, you need to make the intent data actionable for your ABM workflows.  As established in step 1 above, you should have a defined ABM process, which you'll now implement into your ABX platform, CRM, MAP, or other tools.

Learn best practices for setting up views or workflows to activate the data depending on your CRM or MAP integration.

We recommend reaching out to your ABX provider for tips on setting up workflows in those tools using the Signals you built. 

Resources:

• Reports, views and workflows for Pipeline Prediction using SFDC
• Dashboards, lists and workflows for Pipeline Prediction using HubSpot
• Views and workflows for Pipeline Prediction using Outreach

5.  Roll out to the Sales Team

With this Playbook, once your leads are converted to a sales person, adoption is key.  Below are a few tips, recommendations, and best practices to help sales understand how to interpret the pipeline that was generated from intent data. 

Schedule an "Intro to Intent Data" presentation for your sales team with your CSM.

6.  Measure Success

This step CANNOT BE SKIPPED! It’s not a matter of if someone will ask you if your intent data strategy is working, it’s only a matter of when.  All of the work you did upfront to determine your Signals, build your workflow, and activate the data, was designed to prioritize accounts for a true ABX (account-based experience) approach.

Without setting goals and measuring progress against your strategy, intent data is simply data.

Short-Term Metrics

In the short term, there are three areas to watch and measure for impact.

1. First, you will want to ensure the IQAs are flowing into the proper always-on campaign and being followed up with appropriately.
2. Second, you will want to ensure you have the ability to measure each step of the campaign so that you can identify friction points where conversion is low and/or lead velocity is slowed.
3. Third, you will want to measure the volume of new IQAs you are generating on average per week and if that is going to be sustainable for your team downstream or if you need to widen or tighten the aperture of your TAM & signals.

Each of these steps is vital for your strategy to succeed because, without them, intent data is simply data. 

Resources: Short-Term Metrics Overview & Checklist

Long-Term Metrics

Beyond these short-term metrics, most Bombora customers measure the business impact of intent data in a few key ways:

• Conversion Rates: Because you are using an IQA approach for your always-on campaigns, you would expect to see increases in conversion rates at each stage of the buyers journey as you continually optimize your always-on campaign.
• Volume of Opportunities/Meetings: Running this Playbook should help you generate a higher volume of opportunities, meetings, etc., depending on your internal measurement point.  
• Predictable Pipeline: Are you able to accurately forecast your weekly/monthly/quarterly pipeline once the always-on campaign is optimized. For example, you know you are able to identify on average 10 IQAs a week per always on campaign, that yields 5 meetings a week based on your campaign and equates to $X in pipeline every month. 
• Deal Size: When there is a significant spike in research from a prospect, it often indicates a more substantial project, and many Bombora customers see that manifest in larger deal sizes.

Ideally, you will be able to measure all of these. Some customers see success across all of them, others maybe two or three, and some may see significant gain in one area. Measuring all of them will allow you to attribute more success to your program and expand the data into more and more playbooks over time.  

Resources: Long-Term Metrics Overview & Checklist